


Scribbled in the Margins

by awkwardbear



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Canon, Snippets, Zutara Month 2018
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-06 03:46:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16824478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardbear/pseuds/awkwardbear
Summary: A love story told in moments scribbled in the margins.Written for Zutara Month 2018





	1. vigilante

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. vigilantes (kinda) 
> 
> Katara doesn't like Yao.

“You can’t just take other people’s property.”

Katara heard the exasperation in Zuko’s voice. It didn’t stop her from unpacking the crates in her new room. 

“You’ve been here barely a day and you’re already causing an incident.”

She huffed, but continued her work. She had half expected the guest rooms to be covered floor to ceiling in dreary black and bloody red. She was pleasantly surprised to find a soft grey room. It reminded her of twilight in the South. 

“Stop ignoring me!”

Katara, sighing, paused inspection of a polar-wolf headpiece to glance over her shoulder at the Fire Lord. Zuko’s face had turned red, and his hair was down, framing his features nicely. “Calm down,” she said softly. 

“You stole Yao’s painting.”

Katara rolled her eyes. For the fraction of a moment, she had expected Zuko was talking about her arrival in the Capital City. Or even the fact she had stolen Sokka’s spare boomerang when she left. 

“DON’T roll your eyes at me!” Zuko roared. A servant hastily ran by in the hall behind him. “It’s a priceless artifact! It’s Dongfeng Shuo Steals the Peaches of Longevity. It’s an important piece of Fire Nation history!”

“Oh please Zuko, it’s just a fat man eating a piece of fruit.”

The look on his face was worth it, she thought. Zuko was a little slack jawed, eyes wide. He recovered quickly. “HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?!”

“Tell Yao he’ll get it back when he learns to stop chasing Water Tribe boats from traditional hunting grounds .”

Zuko groaned and slapped his palm against his forehead. “That’s not diplomacy. It’s blackmail.”

She shrugged. “I prefer to think of it as vigilantism.” 

“That’s punishable by death here,” he intoned. Zuko ran his hand through his unkempt hair. He sighed. “I didn’t ask you here to menace my counsel with your childish form of justice. I need real help, not blackmail and petty theft.” He paused for a moment. “If I want that, I’ll call for Toph.”

Katara laughed and hung the headpiece near the doorway as a ward against intruding spirits. “I’m here to help you, but I’m also here to help my people. And my people need their traditional hunting grounds restored or they won’t bring in enough walrus-whale fat to account for the population boom.”

Zuko regarded her for a moment with narrow eyes. He was slowly losing steam. 

Katara made her way across the room to the small desk she had asked for in the corner. She pulled the rolled tapestry from behind it. She found it somewhat funny that something so small could have caused the imposing War Minister Yao to have thrown the hissy fit he did at court just a few hours ago. He had sputtered, purple in the face, and whined, whined like a dog after scraps. 

Unfortunately, Zuko knows all that happens under his roof. Or, at least, Zuko knows Katara. 

“Besides, I told you when I agreed to come, if grown adults want to act like children, they’ll be reprimanded like children.” 

She handed the tapestry to the Fire Lord. He wrapped one large hand around the fabric. Katara tried not to think about what the girls back home say about men with large hands. She bit her lip. 

Zuko furrowed his brow and cocked his head. “Is this just about the hunting grounds?”

“Yao asked one of your other ministers why you didn’t just let Azula zap the ‘Avatar’s bloated fishwife’,” Katara deadpanned.

Zuko blinked. The tip of his good ear reddening. “Ah, I see.” 

He returned the tapestry to her. “Carry on then.”


	2. hidden identity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko reveals the reason he asked Katara to the Fire Nation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for day 2: hidden identity. There is a loose plot, and I promise there is romance coming. I will get caught up soon.

Katara couldn’t help the smile that split across her face as she stepped outside the ornate gates of the Hsiao family estate. On the grassy hill some short distance away, a little boy played with his father, wrestling in the dirt. 

Their happiness was infectious. 

—

“His name is Heian Hsiao. He’s the son of the captain of my royal guard. Well… kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Li Jing married his mother when she was only a few months along. Heian has never known any different, and Li Jing won’t have it any other way.”

“Li Jing sounds like an upstanding man. I don’t see what you need my help with though.”

“Heian’s birth father was Water Tribe.”

—

Heian certainly looked Fire Nation in passing. The angled nose and sharp jaw she’d come to associate with Fire Nation nobility was already present under the lingering baby fat. However, as Katara looked closer she could see signs of the truth. His skin was a little tanner than most nobles’ children, and his hair a lot coarser than the silky Fire Nation hair. But oh, his eyes. One gold, one a beautiful clear blue. 

—

“Water tribe?”

“Yes. According to Li Jing, Toshi had a short romance with a Northern merchant before they met. When she discovered she was pregnant, he proposed they marry immediately to save her life.”

“Save her life? Don’t tell me it’s illegal to be pregnant out of wedlock in the Fire Nation. Not even the Water Tribes are so strict.”

“Not at all. Toshi’s family are Purists.”

“Purists?”

“Ugh...that’s what they call themselves. I call them racists. They believe Fire Nation blood should be pure. And, like Yao, they feel their beliefs entitle them to be complete assholes. They would kill Heian and his mother if they knew the truth.”

“That’s awful!”

“Its abhorrent.”

“Why haven’t you done something about them yet?” 

“Being racist isn’t illegal, Katara. My hands are tied. Besides that, they are second or third cousins of mine. I forget.”

“Real winners in your family, huh? I’ll do something…”

“Katara please. This is delicate.”

“Hmmph. Well, I hate to say it but I don’t know what good I would be. Heian looks like any other Fire Nation kid. Maybe a little tanner than nobles, but I’ve seen plenty of middle class citizens darker than I am. I don’t guess I’m understanding the delicate situation.”

“I’m not worried about his looks.”

“Zuko...”

“Heian is a waterbender.”

—

Katara made her way up the hill, relishing the gentle early spring warmth. The southern breeze sent her loose hair dancing around her shoulders. It carried the smell of early blossoms and fresh wet grass. 

Heian and Li Jing were still play wrestling. The young boy was clearly enjoying “defeating” his father. Katara noticed he was dressed in the rich burgundy tunic he wore at their official meeting two nights ago. It was a gift from his father’s parents Heian told her, for his fourth birthday this past winter. His favorite grandparents, he had made sure to emphasize, who shower him with gifts and cook his favorite soup dumplings when he comes to visit. 

Katara chuckled at the memory. 

Heian turned towards the sound. His face lit up and his smile widen until it threatened to split his face in two. His eyes crinkled in joy. Katara thought they were the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. 

“Miss ‘Tara, Miss ‘Tara!” he called out before launching himself at her. 

“Hello Heian,” Katara laughed, hugging the boy attached to her leg. She turned to his father. “Hello to you too, Yang.”

“Master Katara,” Li Jing bowed deeply. His ponytail nearly touched the ground as he bent over. She waved him off. 

“No no, no need for that Li Jing.” 

“No Daddy, Mist’ Zooo-ko says we’re ‘posed to call her Miss ‘Tara, not Mast’ ‘Tara,” Heian corrected his father from Katara’s knee. Li Jing chuckled and ruffled his son’s hair. 

“You’re right, little one,” Li Jing said. “It’s hard for your old father to remember these things.” 

Katara clasped her hands together and smiled up at Li Jing. “It’s really not a big deal to me. Mister Zuko is just very cautious. I’m far more laid back.” 

—

“You want me to teach him waterbending?” 

“At least the basics. Control and discipline mostly. Toshi said he inadvertently freezes their drinks when he gets mad.”

“Ha! That’s fairly normal. I froze Sokka’s tongue to his cup once.” 

“It could be dangerous for him if Heian does that in school. Or in front of his maternal grandparents.”

“I know. You seem to care an awful lot about the Hsiao family.”

“Li Jing took a poison dart meant for me during the first year of my reign. When the other guards were on the fence about serving a seventeen year old, inexperienced Fire Lord, Li Jing acted without hesitation.”

“He sounds like a rare soul.”

“He is. And he is a dear friend.”

“So what about me being a representative for the tribe? Was that all a big lie?” 

“Think of it as a hidden identity. Officially you are here as a representative of the Southern Water Tribe, taking over for Bato during his sabbatical.”

“You totally planned that didn’t you.”

“Bato is aware of the situation, yes. He’s also aware of the discretion needed.”

“Yeah yeah. What’s my excuse for seeing the boy so much? People might notice when the interim ambassador goes missing for long periods of time. For that matter, where will I train him?”

“He lives in a fairly secluded estate on the south side of the island. I’ve been told there is a sizeable private lake on the property.”

“Not bad.”

“As for your excuse, Toshi is an etiquette instructor. You’re learning the ways of the royal court so you don’t stick out like the peasant you are.” 

“You. Are. An. Ass.”

—

“Mister Zuko has just cause,” Li Jing said sadly. 

Heian looked back and forth between his father and Katara. “Are you here for Mama?” 

Katara knelt down. Her knee sank in the dirt as she brought herself eye level with her new charge. How anyone could want to harm something so sweet and innocent, just for being born, she’d never understand. 

“No Heian. I’m here for you,” she said sweetly. His eyes lit up. 

“How would you like to learn waterbending?”


	3. storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko. Katara. A storm. 100 word Drabble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to try and write a drabble.

Zuko watched in awe. 

He’d seen Katara waterbend before. He’d fought against and alongside her. Watching her like this was different. 

She had been working herself to the bone: as ambassador, student and teacher. He suggested a weekend getaway to Ember Island. She quickly accepted. 

It started storming the moment they arrived. 

Thunder rolled. Rain poured. The ocean rose up and Katara rose with it. 

The waves bowed to her hands. The rain parted as she danced. She was consumed in her element, finally free to let her hair down and play. 

Zuko thought her a goddess, wild and beautiful.


	4. jump off the page part i.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love isn’t black and white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: necklace, mythology and fake dating if you squint.

“Beautiful.”

Katara snorted derisively. “You always say that, Aang.” 

The young monk rubbed the back of his neck, grinning. “But you are.” He looked her up and down again. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. “Where did you get that dress?”

“Zuko bought it for me,” she lied effortlessly. She didn’t intend to. It just sort of slipped out. By the frozen look on Aang’s face, the lie served its purpose. 

He pointed to the flower shaped jewels encircling her head. “Is that why you’re wearing a crown of sapphires?”

“They’re blue diamonds actually.” One hand instinctively rose to touch the side of her head, where the royal jewels were pinned into place. She didn’t elaborate further. 

“I see.”

—

_Katara,_

__

__

_I don’t have much time to explain, and we will not be able to talk privately before the fete._

__

__

_Aang arrived this morning. He’s been asking about you all day. He showed me a necklace he carved._

__

__

_I know you asked me to put Ember Island from my mind for now, and I’m honoring that. But I remember what you said about Aang._

__

__

_Inside the box Li Jing delivered is a strand of blue diamonds. Legend says the first Fire Lord and his wife used these to communicate in secret when they could not speak privately. They can be worn in many ways. Wear them braided in your hair and I’ll know you don’t want me in your way. Wear them around your arm and I’ll make a scene to get you out. Wear them as a crown and I will do whatever you ask of me._

__

__

_Yours Always_

__

__

—

Katara looked at Aang. Aang who had grown to a fine, tall, handsome man. He wore his finest robes, and his finest beads. He looked every bit the spiritual leader of the world. 

He wasn’t hard on the eyes either. 

“Katara I know now might not be the best time to talk about it but I don’t want to wait anymore.” He put his hand out, fist curled around something. He’s face was hopeful, if a little nervous. 

“Then don’t,” she whispered, closing her hands around his. She held his hand there between them for a moment. 

This was hard. Much harder than she anticipated, seeing him after so many months. So many things were said when she left. So many more unsaid. Try as she might, erasing her feelings for him outright was impossible. 

But she wasn’t the same Katara. She felt as if someone had uncorked the lightning in her soul, and it wouldn’t be so easy to just bottle it back up. 

Or maybe it would, and that was her biggest fear of all. She knew she could be happy as the Avatar’s wife. 

She just didn’t know if that’s what she wanted anymore. Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. Her stomach threatened to swallow her whole. 

Drowning. She felt like she was drowning. 

“Katara —”

“Later, Aang.” She pulled herself together, and threw a smile on her face. “We have a party to get to, and I promised Zuko I’d be his date for the night.” She pushed his hand back and waved hers awkwardly, trying to laugh the tension away. “Mai is going to be there tonight, and Ty Lee is on a mission to set them back up. Zuko asked me to help.” 

The avatar looked crestfallen. She put a hand on his shoulder. “I promise Aang, we’ll talk about this in private tonight. Ok?” 

“Ok,” Aang said slowly. He grinned a little, pocketing whatever was in his hand. “As long as you promise. Though I don’t think it’ll be very convincing for the avatar’s girlfriend to pretend to be the Fire Lord’s date.” 

Katara sighed. “Don’t you remember, Aang?” She did. Painfully. 

“We broke up.”


	5. heat of the moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I vowed to myself that I’d die to protect the good in you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little bit of royal affairs and a lot of heat of the moment. Ummm...a little bit mature. 
> 
> Very little editing. I’m running on 3 hours of sleep. 
> 
> Also go listen to that song. Like...right now. And try not to sing it for the rest of the day.

Storms had made her anxious since the day of Sozin’s Comet. It took her a while to realize that the anxiety was adrenaline induced, as if her body was expecting that the sky was aiming for her. As if she was fourteen again, standing in the middle of a ruined palace, watching someone take a lightning bolt for her. 

_But he redirected the worst of it,_ her mind would correct her. 

_But he was willing to die for her,_ her heart would counter. _He was willing to throw away everything._

After five years of being afraid of thunderstorms, and five years of blaming herself for letting him get hurt, Katara had finally gotten angry. One day she broke down, stood on the edge of the water and screamed until her lungs ached at the sky. The storm raged that day, within her and without. 

Every thunderstorm from that moment, she’d walk out in the rain and bend until her body ached. Until she couldn’t stand any longer, or until the pain in her heart subsided. 

That is, until she did it in front of Aang. Worry had consumed him. He had went into the avatar state to quell the storm. He didn’t want her to hurt, he said. He loved her too much to see her in pain, he told her. 

She was touched, but a little heartbroken. Sometimes she just needed the release. She needed to feel all the emotions inside of her so she could go on living again. 

But the nature of her relationship with Aang didn’t allow for that. Katara never wanted Aang to hurt, so she coddled him. In return, Aang protected her from her nature. 

So when they arrived in Ember Island and the heavens opened up and thunder rolled, Katara felt like she could breathe again. She stood on the beach in her underclothes and calling every ounce of her power, she bent. The rain, the waves, the tears falling from her eyes. 

It was cathartic. 

It was exhilarating. 

It was the nature of water to change. It was the nature of water to rage and twist. To carve canyons and valleys. To flood. To storm. 

Sometimes it just felt good to release. 

When she finally turned around, drenched to the bone, she was met with strong arms around her body and firm lips against her own. She wasn’t sure whether it was the adrenaline or the pent up longing, but she returned the kiss with vigor. Lips crashing against lips. 

Her hands had found purchase in his hair, pulling him into her as their lips parted to deepen the kiss. She could feel his hands on her everywhere: cradling the back of her head, gripping her shoulders, digging into her waist. 

She met his passion with her own. Her hands fisted in his hair, clawed at his shoulders, held him tight as if he’d slip away. 

She wasn’t sure who broke first. She could barely breathe. 

Zuko rested his head against hers. His wet hair stuck to her face as he tried to catch his own breath. His fingers dug into her waist, as if he too were afraid she’d disappear. 

“I should’ve stopped you,” she whispered, emotions overflowing. 

He pulled back, face fallen. She reached up and cradled his scar. “Not this!” She was shaking. “That day. I should’ve stopped you –” 

“That day?” Zuko cut her off, leaning into her touch. “Not this?”

Katara shook her head, dark hair sending droplets flying. “Not this.”

He smiled sheepishly. “I’ve been wanting this for longer than I want to admit.” 

“Oh?” 

He nodded. 

She wasn’t sure whether it was the adrenaline from the storm, or the rush of the kiss. Maybe it was the fear he’d slip through her fingers again that made her bold. But seeing Zuko, the man who took a lightning bolt for her, standing in the rain, drenched in her element and confessing he’d wanted this too, undone the part of her that had been holding back. 

Katara undone the ties holding her wrappings together and let them fall apart where she stood. Zuko’s eyes widened a blush creeping up his neck. 

She was struck with the urge to taste it. So she did. Leaning forward, she put her lips on his pulse point and licked. 

She pulled back and whispered into his neck, her breathe cooling the moisture on his throat. “If you want me to stop, I’ll stop. But I’ll admit, I’ve been aching for _this_ , I’ve wanted it so long.” 

That, paired with her bare chestnut breasts pressed against him in the rain, was all it took to undo him. He growled. “I _never_ want you to stop.” 

He hooked his arms under her thighs and lifted her. She could feel the length of him against her ass. The rain picked up and he hurried towards the house. She continued to work on his throat, sucking, blowing, and biting as he moaned and growled. 

Katara felt more alive in Zuko’s arms than she had in years. “Is that a challenge?” She whispered against his skin. 

“Can you handle it?” He mocked, quickening his pace. She heard his footsteps on the wooden lanai. 

“Can you?” She asked as she snaked a hand down between them and grasped him firmly. 

They didn’t make it into entirely in the house. Zuko pressed her against the doorway and made love to her as the stormed raged around them. 

—

Days later, after they had christened every surface of the old house, giving him new memories to hold on to, he returned to their initial conversation. “Yon Rha.” 

She froze at the name, eyes narrowing. They were sitting in the hot springs on the property, having just exhausted themselves once more. 

“When I watched you spare Yon Rha, despite everything he had done to deserve your wrath, I vowed to myself that I’d die to protect the good in you.” 

Katara relaxed, tears forming in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but Zuko hushed her. 

“Don’t ever feel guilty about this scar.” He caught her hand and pulled it to his chest. “Of all the ones I have, I am most _proud_ of this. And I would take every blow all over again if it meant protecting you.”

She cried, and crawled into his lap. She could not find the words to say, so she spoke to him as they had all week. With their bodies. 

This time they were slow, rocking back and forth gently until they collapsed together. 

—

Sometime after they returned, Iroh cornered Zuko with grim news. 

—

“The council is threatening to challenge the throne, nephew.” 

“On what grounds!” 

“On the grounds that you have not married or produced an heir. Azula is with child. They fear your bachelor status will weaken the throne.”

“How?! It doesn’t matter that she found someone willing to fuck her. Azula has been deemed unfit for rule!”

“But any child she has still has royal blood. All it would take from there is an accident or an assassin to put Azula’s seed on the throne.” 

“If they’re so willingly threatening my position, what should Azula’s child matter? They’ll just find it unfit as well and proceed to find a replacement. Or to abolish the monarchy as it stands.”

“Do you think your council would survive the ascension of Azula’s heir? They’ll mysteriously die before the coronation.” 

“What are they asking, Uncle?”

“That you marry before summer’s end.” 

“Preposterous.” 

“ _And_ that you produce an heir before the year’s end.” 

“Babies don’t come that quick, Uncle.” 

“But proof of them in their mother’s womb does.” 

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not if you want peace.”

“Of course.”

“There is one more thing, my nephew.”

“More good news. Wonderful.”

“Your vacation with Master Katara was not well received by some of your council members. Yao in particular has caused an uproar over his Fire Lord — how did he put it — ‘diluting the royal bloodline’ with Water Tribe blood.” 

“He can shove his opinion up his ass. His place on my council is a favor to family. Besides, her father is the High Chief of the Southern Tribe.” 

“Yes…were you not the only member of the royal family left, it would be a favorable match. Unifying the nations. However, as you know, only firebenders can be heirs. And with two powerful benders of opposing elements as parents, there is no guarantee a child between the union would be a bender at all. These things have a way of canceling out.”

“…”

“I did not know things were so serious with her.”

“They’re still fresh, Uncle.”

“This…will complicate matters.”

“Huh, you think?!”

—

Katara was shell shocked at the news. Zuko, for his part, showed considerable restraint and patience in telling her. 

He had reminded her of a child awaiting a beating. 

“It’s…all so new, Zuko,” she whispered, sitting on the edge of her bed. 

Zuko shrank beside her. “I know…”

“You know I can’t agree to this right now. I told you, on Ember Island, about Aang. He’s chasing me for the same thing. To be mother to the new Air Nation.” Tears started falling silently from her eyes. “Mother to the new Air Nation or the new Fire Nation. Either way all I’m good for is a womb.”

Zuko wiped them away with the pad of his thumb. “No,” he whispered. “I’m not asking you to reduce yourself to that. I won’t.” 

“What are you asking me?” She grabbed his hand. She was terrified. 

Zuko paused for a moment, gold eyes searching hers. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, gently. He rested his head on her forehead after pulling away. 

“I just ask that you do what makes you happy.” 

Katara wanted to break down. She wanted to scream. Instead, she pushed it down. She could break later. Not now. Not in front of him. 

“Teaching Heian,” she said quietly. “Right now, teaching Heian waterbending makes me happy.” 

Zuko nodded. 

“It’s not that I don’t care for you, or that I didn’t enjoy myself. Or you, for that matter,” she continued, trying to tamp down the blush creeping up her neck. “But right now, I want to focus on anything else. It’s all just…it’s so much.”

“Okay,” he said softly. “What do you want from me?” It was not accusatory. It was just a question, coming from a man with too much weight on his shoulders. 

“Let’s just…go back for a little while. Back to being Fire Lord and Heian’s teacher slash greatest Water Tribe ambassador ever,” she tried to joke.

She was running. She knew that. She still couldn’t seem to help it. 

—

Zuko left that evening, only half broken hearted. 

He suggested she move to the Hsiao family estate for a while, under the guise of extensive lessons leading up to the Solstice Festival. 

“Uncle always says if you’re unsure how to face a problem, step back. Put it into perspective,” he had said. 

Zuko didn’t have to tell Katara that his heart and whole body ached when he saw her. 

Katara didn’t have to tell Zuko she agreed to go because the more she saw him, the more she wanted to say yes.


End file.
